A landmark study released Tuesday by the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County and Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, reports that nationally, 37 million people are requiring food assistance each year. That number is up by more than 46 percent from 2006.
Locally, the Foodbank has seen an increase of nearly 20,000 people needing food assistance and is now serving 145,000 people each year compared with the 125,000 in 2006.
This is the first research study to capture on a local level the significant connection between the recent economic downturn and an increased need for emergency food assistance. A staggering 47 percent of households served by the Foodbank have one or more adults employed in a family and still requiring assistance to put enough food on the table.
In Santa Barbara County, 62 percent of households the Foodbank serves are living below the poverty level and 29 percent have an annual income of less than $10,000.
“These numbers not only show an increase in need,” Foodbank Executive Director Erik Talkin said. “They also tell us people are in desperate need of good food, nutritious food, so they may keep the jobs they have, or be healthy enough to go out apply for the jobs that do exist.”
Forty percent of those interviewed during the study have been unemployed for more than two years.
“We have parents skipping meals so their children may eat, and seniors having to choose between food or utilities and medications,” Talkin said. “This could easily be your neighbor, or a child that goes to school with your children, or someone you might work with.”
In Santa Barbara County, 13 percent of households with children the Foodbank serves reported that their children had skipped a meal. Food insecurity is at an all-time high in the United States, with 14 million children and 3 million seniors receiving emergency food assistance.
“It is morally reprehensible that we live in the wealthiest nation in the world where one in six people are struggling to make choices between food and other basic necessities,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America. “These are choices that no one should have to make, but particularly households with children. Insufficient nutrition has adverse effects on the physical, behavioral and mental health, and academic performance of children. It is critical that we ensure that no child goes to bed hungry in America as they truly are our engine of economic growth and future vitality.”
In Santa Barbara County, the unemployment rate jumped from 8.3 percent in January 2009 to 9.3 percent in one year, with rates rising to as high as 14.4 in Santa Maria, 21.3 percent in Isla Vista, 22.8 percent in Montecito, 8.6 percent in Mission Hills and 16.2 percent in Lompoc as of December 2009.
Angelica Cavillo, 35, a single mom with two teenage boys, has been a recipient of one of the Foodbank’s 220 member agencies, Angel Food, since the latter part of 2006 when she was diagnosed with cancer. Cavillo was and is still running a licensed family day-care center but has lost two or three of her clients because of the economy.
She wasn’t eligible for disability because, she says, “I was lucky enough to have beaten the cancer and am cancer free for now, and for that I am very thankful. I got well in time to find out I fell in the category of not being eligible for disability, which I paid into, since I wasn’t sick for more than a year.”
After losing clients and fighting cancer, Cavillo has used all the equity from her home to keep food on her table.
“Without the bags of groceries I get from Angel Food, the food pantry, my kids and I would have to skip meals, but so far we have been blessed,” Cavillo said. “I cut coupons, look for all the deals, buy in bulk and plan my meals around the groceries I get from the food pantry.”
Foodbank member agencies are charitable organizations that provide the food directly to the clients in need, through various types of social service and church programs. The Foodbank provides food, produce and other grocery products to 220 member agencies throughout Santa Barbara County. The Foodbank’s network of agencies includes emergency food pantries, soup kitchens and shelter food programs. The Foodbank also serves children and senior centers, after-school programs and other programs that are considered nonemergency food programs.
The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County’s Hunger Study 2010 focused on those member agencies that provide emergency food distribution, of which 31 percent are emergency food pantries, 11 percent are kitchens and 5 percent are shelters; 51 percent are nonemergency food programs.
Click here to view the Foodbank’s Hunger Study 2010. Click here for the Feeding America Hunger Study 2010.
— Kerry Aller is the development and public relations manager for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County.